Catering Service

Catering Service is the resulting installation of a workshop held in IED Madrid.

The word «ephemeral» derives etymologically from «ephémeros», whose original meaning was «that it lasts only one day». Although the current understanding of the word is slightly detached from the original definition, the semantic core prevails. An ephemeral intervention is framed between two focuses, the beginning and the end. It has no pretension of eternity. Catering Service takes this idea as a starting point, looking for an intervention of limited lifespan, whose destruction is part of its conceptual and constructive approach. Catering Service was built between the 22nd and the 26th of February and eaten by the public attending a party held in Madrid on February 26, 2016 between 8 and 11 p.m. The installation combines all the components of a catered event in a single element: protocols, waiters, appetizers, main courses, desserts, drinks and dance. Materially it is composed of large surfaces of ciabatta bread, thinner than usual, specially designed and baked for the occasion. The bread had to be analyzed in terms of mechanical resistance revealing this variety as the most suitable. The menu, reduced to spheres of different flavors, was arranged on the wafers so that the most intense and salty flavors are located in the perimeter areas. Gradually they change to sweeter flavors as they approach the central area of the installation, reserving the core for capsules of alcoholic content. The radial distribution makes the desserts inaccessible without first having consumed the appetizers and main dishes, requiring the attendants to eat their way through to reach the final courses. The bread surfaces hang from a wooden structure at a height of approximately 1.20 m, the average height at which a waiter usually offers the menu served on a tray. The support structure is tied up by the wafers’ weight, leading to the its collapse once the meal is over.

Catering service was carried out during the week of semester workshops of the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Madrid by Ana, Victoria, Rita Missoum, Víctor Zaballos, Ana Lucía Matamorón, Zoe Calvo, Eduardo Fernandez and the rest of the students attending the workshop lead by Taller de Casquería (E. Fuertes, R. Martínez, A. Molins, J. Sobejano, L. Pérez). The installation was photographed by Maru Serrano. Catering Service was one of the selected projects in the 2017 FAD design awards.